LITMIR.BIZ

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that with a little too much fake enthusiasm. “Okay, it’s a little ugly. But there are things you can do to make it less hideous.”

      “You’re really selling it,” he said drily. “I guess we should look inside?”

      “Never judge a book by its cover,” she agreed.

      He snorted. “The Boltons are a family of bikers. They look like mercenary criminals but underneath, they’re all great big teddy bears.” He paused, hand on the handle. “Don’t tell my dad I called him a teddy bear.”

      She laughed as they got out of the car. “It’s all confidential,” she reminded him.

      The split-level ranch did not improve in appearance outside the car. “It better have one hell of a kitchen,” Seth commented, kicking at the unmowed grass.

      Kate winced. Well, now she knew that a good kitchen was important. “Don’t see what it is. See what it can be.”

      Seth scowled at her. “The other twelve aren’t this ugly, are they?”

      “No. I don’t normally tell people this, but we’re going in order from what I think you’re least likely to buy. But,” she added before he could suggest skipping half the list, “I’ve been wrong before. People can be surprising in what they want, and I don’t know you well enough yet to be able to say definitively what you’ll like and what you won’t.”

      Seth’s gaze snapped to hers and there it was again, that tension between them that hummed like a string, and Kate’s brain took that moment to remind her this was the man who’d stripped her skirts off her and gotten a full view of her wedding thong.

      He took a step closer. “I imagine,” he said, his voice low, “that if we make this a standing date, you’ll figure out what I’m looking for real quick.”

      She could feel the heat in her cheeks, but she couldn’t look away, couldn’t put any distance between them. “I imagine I will,” she murmured.

      His eyes darkened, and he looked dangerous in the very best sort of way.

      Against her will, her body pitched toward his. His lips parted—he had nice lips, full and warm and...

      “Kate.” His voice stroked over her name like a lover’s kiss as he took another step closer.

      “Seth,” she replied. It came out high and breathy.

      Good God, what the hell was she doing? She couldn’t—really, she couldn’t. She was pregnant and coming off a failed long-term relationship and he was a client and...and...well, there were just a lot of really good reasons why she couldn’t act on any of her fantasies right now.

      She pulled away before she did something idiotic, like throw herself at him. “We...” She cleared her throat and tried again in her real estate agent voice. “We should go inside.”

      Some of the heat in his gaze cooled. “We should,” he agreed. But he didn’t sound happy about it.

      And he didn’t get any happier as they toured the house. The place was just as hideous on the inside as it was on the outside. The kitchen still had original appliances, the carpet was probably early 1980s—a cream color that had dimmed to a dull gray with grime. The wallpaper was peeling in the bathroom, and the tub was the stuff of horrors.

      Kate cleared her throat. “As you can see, there is room to grow.”

      Seth snorted again. “But what? Is that mold, do you think? You shouldn’t be breathing this air.” He ushered her out of the bathroom, his hand on the small of her back. When they were in the hallway, he didn’t remove it.

      “You have to look into the future. Do you want room for a girlfriend or a wife?” She swallowed. “A family?”

      His hand dropped away from her waist. “I don’t have any plans for family anytime soon and I’m not seeing anyone,” he told her. He stopped in the middle of peeking into the linen closet. “How are things going? With the pregnancy, I mean.”

      Kate blushed from the tips of her ears to her toes. “Good.” Aside from her parents and Roger and Harold, few people knew she was pregnant. It had been hard enough to explain to everyone why the wedding was off without the added complication of an unplanned pregnancy. She had wanted to keep it quiet for long as long as possible.

      Which meant she wasn’t very good at talking about it yet.

      Seth peeked into the third bedroom and winced in horror at the walls. “Is Roger going to step up?”

      “In his way,” she admitted. “He’s been willing to provide child support.”

      Seth heard what she didn’t say. “But nothing else?”

      The concern in his eyes did things to her that had nothing to do with his dimples or her inability to stop blushing. He cared, damn his hide. He cared about her and her pregnancy, and she had the urge to tell him about all the strange things happening to her because he was the only person who’d asked. “No. We should look at the basement.”

      They went downstairs. The heart-of-pine paneling had seen better days, just like everything else in this house. “So he’s not going to be a father to his child. Typical.”

      Kate was surprised by the bitterness in Seth’s voice. “That’s an accurate assessment of the situation,” she said. When he gave her a hard look, she added, “Which is for the best, honestly.”

      “If you say so.” He surveyed the rest of the basement room, his hands on his hips. “I think we’re done here. We can cross this off the list.”

      “Done.” They headed outside. “No more split-level ranches?”

      “Good Lord, no,” he said, getting back into the car. “I like the idea of having room to grow, though. There’s always the possibility of houseguests, at the very least. Julie might come over.”

      She nodded and tried not to imagine what sort of houseguest this Julie would be. Young, pretty and not pregnant, most likely. Kate shook her head trying to get images out of her mind and focused on her job—the job she desperately needed.

      She wished she could show him her favorite house—the one in the Colonial Pines neighborhood that had been on the market for almost a year. If she’d been able to afford it, she would have snapped that home up in a heartbeat. But even with combining her and Roger’s incomes, the house on Bitter Root was out of reach—it was over twice the price of homes like this one and she didn’t want to push Seth into more house than he wanted.

      So she put that house out of her mind and focused on her job. “We have other options. One down, twelve more to go.”

      Seth groaned.

       Seven

      “I take it from the expression on your face that this one’s a no, too?”

      Seth was all for wood-burning stoves, but not ones that left scorch marks up a wall and dark shadows on the ceiling. “How is it possible that the house hasn’t burned down?” Even as he said, his foot hit a particularly creaky board and he hoped like hell he wasn’t about to fall through.

      Kate sighed and put a hand to her lower back. “These are the houses at this price range,” she began, closing her eyes and stretching.

      “Then we go up.” He had the money.

      Even though Seth and his mom had lived comfortably—more than comfortably—for ten years with Billy Bolton, old habits died mighty hard. Seth had been looking at the cheaper end of homes simply because there was a part of his brain convinced that was all he should spend on a house.

      That part of his brain was wrong. He could afford homes that cost four times the ones they’d spent the day staring at.

      He was a partner in a

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